Legal question for any lawyers on the board

[AgentCreed]

If a Lawsuit is filed twice for the same thing in the same year, is that double jeopardy and does that cancel out any judgments resulting?

My cousin just found out she was sued in 2006 by a debt collector for a sprint cellphone(she never in her life had a sprint cellphone) and the name on the lawsuit is incorrect, its her correct 1st name but the last name is wrong by one letter.

One lawsuit was filed in 2/06 the 2nd was filed 11/06 and one of them is being used to garnish her wages but both have default judgments on them.

She is not sure what to write in her answer on the order to show cause.
She wants them both dismissed without a future court appearance because she has never had a sprint cellphone in her life and nothing is on her credit report indicating that.

anyone know what to do? Does double jeopardy cancel both out?

 

[greygoose]

in addition to here, i would also go to

http://www.freeadvice.com/

and the forum section is hard to find:
http://forum.freeadvice.com/

good luck

 

[AgentCreed]

thanks

 

[Mr Lucifer]

Double jeopardy only applies to criminal matters. for civil matters the situation may fall into res judicata or collateral estoppel.

I think the second default judgment can possibly be vacated if your state allows you to go in and claim res judicata AFTER the judgment has been obtained.
The first default judgment will not be vacated, there is no "canceling out" there. You're going to have to retain an attorney to vacate the default judgment and then argue that res judicata should be applied even after the default judgment was obtained by sprint.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of questions to be answered, which I would have answers for when you go to the attorney:
1) Did they serve your cousin thinking she was someone else - sometimes law offices do a people search, and if the name is common - a wrong person can get served - in which case your cousin needs to talk to the plaintiff's attorney and clear up the mistake. the fact that the name was spelled correctly in the second suit could be only because they got your cousin's right name through the first lawsuit, and thought their original file had a mistake. CHECK HER CREDIT REPORT to see if this judgment is under her name - it could be possible that her SS # is not even involved - and she's got nothing to worry about. (you should do this before you go to the attorney)
2) Did you cousin respond at all to either lawsuits
3) How was she served/how did she find out about the lawsuits
4) Any other information you may have about the case

just to be clear, i'm not your attorney, nor should you go solely by what i'm saying - i dont know nearly enough about this situation to help you appropriately

 

[Imhotep]

bump

 

[bulldogg70]

If a Lawsuit is filed twice for the same thing in the same year, is that double jeopardy and does that cancel out any judgments resulting?

My cousin just found out she was sued in 2006 by a debt collector for a sprint cellphone(she never in her life had a sprint cellphone) and the name on the lawsuit is incorrect, its her correct 1st name but the last name is wrong by one letter.

One lawsuit was filed in 2/06 the 2nd was filed 11/06 and one of them is being used to garnish her wages but both have default judgments on them.

She is not sure what to write in her answer on the order to show cause.
She wants them both dismissed without a future court appearance because she has never had a sprint cellphone in her life and nothing is on her credit report indicating that.

anyone know what to do? Does double jeopardy cancel both out?

Double Jeopardy is not a standard in civil claims. Now lets go to the actual lawsuit themselves. First you mentioned that one lawsuit does not have her correct name. Although that is not absolute it can be an argument for setting aside or vacating a default judgment. Now, and please be careful because, depending on what part of the country you are from one suit can be the extension of the other to record a judgment and garnish on it. Rules and procedure differ from state to state.

The big issue now comes down to service, and here is the problem, you are going to have to look at the affidavits of service, and/or the service process of the original Complaint(s). If the process service indicates that she was properly served the question will be, "why did she not respond." Even something as minor as a name correction is not an excuse.

I am not an attorney but I am licensed to file pleadings on behalf of people, so if you are truly interested and need help, just hit me up. However Default Judgments are hard to overcome.